Barack Obama with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, July 2014 — Wikipedia

On Friday, Barack Hussein Obama gave the families of 9/11 victims the middle finger when he vetoed a bill that would let those families sue the Saudi government, the Washington Post reported.

According to the Post:

President Obama on Friday vetoed legislation that would allow families of 9/11 victims sue Saudi Arabia over its alleged ties to the terrorists who carried out the attacks.

Congressional leaders plan to hold override votes in the coming days and supporters of the legislation say they are confident they can succeed in overturning the president’s action.

The Obama administration had until midnight Friday to reject the measure, or it would have automatically becomes law.

The legislation would allow U.S. courts to waive claims to foreign sovereign immunity in cases involving terrorism on U.S. soil. The administration contends that this would break a longstanding practice that sovereign nations are protected from these types of legal threats. The result, according to the White House, is that American officials could be sued in foreign courts over U.S. military or diplomatic actions abroad.

“I recognize that there is nothing that could ever erase the grief the 9/11 families have endured. My Administration therefore remains resolute in its commitment to assist these families in their pursuit of justice and do whatever we can to prevent another attack in the United States,” Obama wrote in his veto message to Congress. “Enacting [this legislation] into law, however, would neither protect Americans from terrorist attacks nor improve the effectiveness of our response to such attacks.”

The 9/11 Families & Survivors United for Justice Against Terrorism, a group consisting of thousands of family members and survivors, issued a scathing statement of condemnation:

We are outraged and dismayed at the President’s veto of JASTA and the unconvincing and unsupportable reasons that he offers as explanation. No matter how much the Saudi lobbying and propaganda machine may argue otherwise, JASTA is a narrowly drawn statute that restores longstanding legal principles that have enjoyed bipartisan support for decades. It will deter terrorism and hold accountable those nations that support and fund it.

We are deeply grateful for the unanimous bipartisan support that JASTA has in Congress, and we look forward to the Senate and House fulfilling their commitments by quickly overriding this veto.

The group promised to give further information in followup statements.